The Real Deal New York

Online luggage retailer Away takes big office, showroom in Soho

Away, an e-commerce luggage startup, has landed one of Soho’s largest leases in recent months.

The company signed a lease for 56,500 square feet of both showroom and office space at 82 Mercer Street, also known as 503-511 Broadway, sources told The Real Deal.

The lease spans 11,800 square feet on the lower level; just over 13,000 square feet on the second floor; and nearly 31,607 square feet on the third floor, sources said.

Asking rents are in the mid-$70s for the second and third floors and in the low-$40s for the lower level, sources added. The length of the lease is not clear.

William Fung’s Hang Seng Realty Corporation owns the five-story condominium property’s roughly 130,000 square feet of office. Zara’s parent company Inditex bought the 47,000-square-foot retail condo from Hang Seng in 2015 for $280 million, and then opened a Zara store as the anchor.

The move marks an upgrade from its nearly 2,700 square feet of retail space at 10 Bond Street, owned by the Chetrit Group, SK Development and Ironstate Development. The company signed a five-year lease there last year. That space was an upgrade from a 1,000-square-foot pop-up shop on Crosby Street.

Christopher Owles and Matthew Girard of Sinvin Real Estate represented Away, and a Newmark Knight Frank team led by Alex Leopold, Jonathan Franzel, Eric Cagner and David Falk represented the owner. Representatives for Away and the landlord did not respond to requests for comment, and the brokers declined to comment.

Away, led by Steph Korey and Jen Rubio, was founded in 2015. The company manufactures and sells “smart luggage,” or luggage with built-in electronics. One of Away’s competitors, Bluesmart, shut down earlier this month after several major airlines banned smart luggage.

Luxury brands Hermes and Gucci recently signed short-term leases for new stores in Soho, as many retailers avoid making longer-term commitments for space.

An October analysis by TRD found that retail sat vacant in nearly $1 billion worth of newly bought real estate.